


It Was Tuesday

by AndyBoy



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Marriage Proposal, god I just want them to be happy, mostly its just fluff i promise, rated teen for language only
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 06:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndyBoy/pseuds/AndyBoy
Summary: 5 times Jack told Sammy he loved him, and 1 Time Sammy said it back





	It Was Tuesday

**Author's Note:**

> I think 5 times 1 time is a bit overused, but I still think it's cute, so I thought I'd have a crack at it! Unbeta'd.

I.

It was a Tuesday, the first time they really fought, and it was raining. It was pouring rain in sheets and buckets, splattering against the windows of the apartment. The window that neither of them could ever get to close properly had a pillow haphazardly stuffed in the crack, and a small puddle of water was collecting on the floor underneath. 

Jack’s eyes had become glazed with tears and his hands were waving wildly as he spoke. 

“Look, I’m sorry for wanting to be a normal guy in a normal relationship!” Jack gestured at his chest. “If you won’t hold my hand under the seats in a dark movie theatre, how am I supposed to trust that you’re mine?”

“I am yours, Jack. I’m just not ready for people to know.”

“Nobody would have known! I wanted to hold your hand, Sammy, is that too much to ask?” Jack’s trembling hands were balled into fists. 

“I’m sorry, Jack. I just get so paranoid—”

“Yeah, I know.” Jack turned away. “You have an image to keep. I’m gonna sleep on the couch tonight, okay, Sammy?”

“You don’t have to do that.” Sammy’s eyes looked so downcast, and Jack almost melted. Damn him, he could never stay focused when Sammy’s eyes were in the equation.

“Sammy, I’m hurt. It’s like you’re not proud of me, like you don’t care about me enough to show the world that I’m yours. You have me, Sammy, so show me off! I want to be with you. Why don’t you get that?”

“I do, Jack. I get it. I just can’t do it yet. I’m not strong enough yet.”

“I’m sleeping on the couch.”

“Jack.” Sammy reached out and grabbed Jack’s wrist. Jack didn’t resist, he just glowered at the floor. He knew if he met Sammy’s eyes again, he’d be lost all over again. His heart thrummed in his ears and his stomach twisted in knots. Sammy squeezed Jack’s wrist. “Jack, please.” 

Jack shook his head, staring determinedly at the floor. 

“Jack, please be patient with me. I’m not ready to take that step, but you know I’m happy with you, right? Just because I’m not ready for the world to know it, doesn’t mean that you have to forget it. You know I need you here. You know I can’t sleep alone.”

With that, Jack was a goner. He looked up and met Sammy’s eyes. His gorgeous eyes. God, Jack was so far gone. 

“You don’t ever have to sleep alone.”

He meant it.

When the two of them settled into bed that night, Jack turned to Sammy and said, “I love you.”

He meant that too.

 

II.

The first time Sammy made breakfast for Jack, it was Jack’s birthday. The two had planned on visiting Lily later that day to go on a birthday outing, but when Jack’s eyes fell on Sammy, framed in the doorway and carrying a tray haphazardly stacked with burnt breakfast, all thoughts of leaving the apartment flew out the window. He could spend the entire day in bed with Sammy, with his boyfriend, with his favorite person, with  _ Shotgun Sammy Stevens,  _ who Jack was somehow lucky enough to have been chosen by, who Jack was so head over heels for it hurt. 

“I burnt your eggs a little, because I’ve never made over easy before, but I know they’re your favorite, and it’s your birthday, so—”

“I bet they’re amazing, Sammy. Come here.”

“Was it too cheesy to make you breakfast in bed? It’s what we did for birthdays at my house growing up, and—”

“Sammy, it’s the best birthday present ever. I feel like a real princess.” Sammy laughed at that. “Come here and sit down with me.” Jack adjusted himself until he was sitting upright, resting against the headboard, blanket still covering his crossed legs. Sammy crossed over to the bed and carefully set the tray down on Jack’s legs. He kissed Jack on the temple, causing a blush to creep up Jack’s neck. You’d have thought he’d be used to affection by now.

“You deserve to feel like a real princess, Jack.” Sammy sat down on the edge of the bed, grinning at the flustered expression Jack was sure he was wearing. “Go on, eat your bacon before it gets cold.”

The bacon was about the only thing on the tray that Sammy hadn’t burnt. Even the grapefruit half was singed on one side. 

“It got too close to the stove, and some bacon grease fell into the fire, and it kinda flared up and got the grapefruit. Sorry,” Sammy said sheepishly, by way of explanation. Jack let his mouth slip into a wide grin. 

“You massive dork,” Jack said, sticking his spoon into the grapefruit. “Open up, you get to eat the side you burned.” Sammy opened his mouth obediently, and Jack stuck the spoon in. He couldn’t help but watch the way his boyfriend’s lips closed around the silver neck of the spoon. Sammy must have noticed him looking, because he turned away, covering his lips with a fist. 

“It’s not that bad, singed grapefruit. You should try it.” 

“I love you,” Jack said. 

Sammy looked at Jack in surprise. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He rubbed his lips absentmindedly and looked down at his lap. Jack sighed and took another bite of grapefruit. Maybe visiting Lily wasn’t such a bad idea after all. 

 

III.

Sammy pushed the door open, his eyes fixed on the ground. Jack shook his head.

“I don’t believe you. You’re just going to run away again. Sammy, I said we need to talk about this.”

“And we will. But I have to go to work.”

“Sure, go keep up your facade. Let me know when you’re ready for me to be a part of it. Let me know when you’re ready for me to be a part of your life”

Sammy still wouldn’t meet Jack’s eyes. “Jack, you’re not a part of my life.” 

“What?” Jack had to take a step back, he physically felt like he had been punched in the gut.

“You  _ are _ my life.  _ You _ are my everything, but I’m scared, okay? You know I’m not ready.”

“When will you be ready?”

Sammy closed the door slowly. At least he wasn’t leaving. “I don’t know when I’m gonna be ready, Jack. It’s hard.”

“You’re not even working on it, Sammy. You’re just sticking to this whole life you’ve got built up, and you’re too scared to even try to let it change! I want it to change, Sammy, I want you to change.”

Sammy’s eyes were so full of fire then that Jack had to place a hand on the wall to keep himself from being knocked over. “You want me to change for you? I’m not enough the way I am?”

“No, that’s—that’s not what I meant, Sammy, I—”

“I’m going to change, Jack, but not for you. I’m changing for me, and for us, but I’m not changing for you.”

“Sammy, you’re right, I would never expect—”

“I’m not finished,” Sammy said firmly. Jack shut up. “You mean the world to me, Jack, you know that. But you’re trying to force me out when I’m not ready, and you of all people should understand that that’s not fair. I’m still figuring me out, I’m still trying to become comfortable with myself. I can’t be comfortable with us until I’m comfortable with me. So you need to back up and work with me, rather than against me. Because I’m going to get better.” Sammy took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m done.”

“Sammy, how are you supposed to get comfortable with yourself while you’re trying to be someone else?”

“Jack, I—”

“You’re gonna be late for work.” Jack planted a firm kiss on Sammy’s cheek, making it clear with the force that he was still upset. “I love you.”

“Thank you.” Sammy pulled the door open and slammed it behind him. Jack choked on a sob. Why couldn’t they just be fucking happy? Why did everything have to be so damn complicated? Why couldn’t they just be dumb guys in love?

 

IV.

The weeks when Sammy was away on business were the hardest times for Jack. Sure, he had work to distract him during the day, and at night, he was busy working on his research, but in the strange twilight hours between six and nine at night, Jack’s mind could apparently think of nothing better to do than think of Sammy.

His mind could apparently think of nothing better to do than fooling Jack into thinking his phone had just vibrated.

His mind could apparently think of nothing better to do than creating a flash of an image of his boyfriend in Jack’s peripheral vision.

On lonely nights, when Jack was microwaving leftover takeout, he’d learned to ignore the way his mind was telling him that Sammy was still there. He knew where Sammy was, he was in Malibu or in Miami, or somewhere else, appearing on somebody’s big talk show as  _ Shotgun Sammy Stevens.  _

Sometimes he stayed up late enough to listen to the shows. 

Mostly, he just turned on the Disney Channel and pretended his lo mein didn’t taste like cement and stick to his throat like glue.

He almost missed the phone call.

When his pocket started vibrating, it took him a full three rings for him to realize that it wasn’t phantom vibrations, that somebody was actually trying to get in touch with him. Jack whipped his phone out of his pocket so quickly, he brought three pennies and a pen cap out with it. He scanned the phone screen, eyes lighting up. 

“Sammy!” he yelled into the empty apartment. His poor boyfriend was usually too scatterbrained to remember to call him. Or too self conscious. Whatever, he was calling him now, and Jack quickly pressed a shaking thumb onto the green circle.

“Hello?” he asked excitedly.

“Jack, hey, it’s Sammy. I know it’s late, but I’m about to go on the air, and—”

“I was just thinking about you! How are you, how’s Virginia?”

Sammy chuckled. “It’s all right. It’d be better with you here.” Jack’s heart stopped for a full five seconds before it started hurtling through space at a thousand beats per second. 

“Sammy, are you alone, or…?” He let the question hang in the air. Sammy would never say something so romantic around someone else. 

“I am. I just ran off to the bathroom before the show. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Jack melted into a puddle. One hand was pressed to his burning face, and his feet were kicking wildly. He felt like a giddy schoolgirl on her first date. 

“Oh my god,” he said into his hand. “Oh man, I’m…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Jack. I just wanted to hear from you before the show. It’s been ages since I got stage-fright, but, I dunno, something about tonight. It just makes me feel better to know that you’re behind me.”

“Oh god, that’s so cute, oh man, you’re so wonderful, I’m a mess.” Jack stood up off the couch and spun in a circle, one hand stretched out, the other pressing his phone to his ear.

“I have to go, love. But I’ll talk to you soon, all right?”

“Mm, yeah,” Jack said, cheeks aching from smiling so widely. “Break a leg, love.”

“Just what I needed to hear. Thank you, Jack.”

Sammy hung up. Jack collapsed on the couch, phone clutched to his chest. His heart was finally slowing, but his head was still full of helium. He felt like he was floating an inch off the seat. He pulled up his messaging app and typed out a quick message to “Shotgun<3”

“I love you so much.”

 

V.

Jack’s research had lately been keeping him up until very early hours of the morning. His desk was so cluttered with maps and charts and newspaper clippings that it was near impossible to discern the difference between one thing and another. 

He almost didn’t notice the sticky notes.

They were small, at first. Little notes tacked to printed articles. Written in sharpie, they all said things like “go to bed before 2:00” and “drink more water” and “bought your favorite chips”.

They all said little things. Small notes that Jack didn’t think much of. He was too busy connecting pictures on a corkboard with red string. 

“King Falls, huh?” Sammy had asked amusedly, the first time Jack had made the connection. Jack had nodded fervently, sweat dripping down his brow. 

“Don’t you see? All of these strange people, these happenings, they all come back to King Falls! Well, sometimes people only mention going to visit an old friend in a mountain town, but others have ancestors from the site, and don’t get me started on eyewitness reports from the town!”

“All right, my conspiracy nut.” Sammy had kissed Jack on the forehead. “Come to bed sometime before sunrise, will you?” 

That was the night before Jack found the first note. A week later, he found the second one. They only grew in quantity after that, until Jack was finding two or three a day. They also began to grow more personal, sometimes saying things like “you are the light of my life” or “please never change” or “I am who I am because of you”. Whenever Jack picked one up, he smiled, and stuck it in his notebook. He had a lot of those, but he’d set one aside for Sammy.

God forbid anyone ever found his Sammy notebook. It had everything from doodles of Sammy, to poems about Sammy, to the napkin Sammy had scribbled his number on when they’d first met. 

One night, Jack pulled a stack of sticky notes from the desk drawer and set to work. When Sammy awoke the next day, he’d see the walls of the room covered from top to bottom in sticky notes. Each one had anything from a simple heart to a full, wordy sentiment. The door to their bedroom, however, would only have one sticky note on it, and it would only say three words.

When Sammy woke up to see Jack smiling at him from the other side of the bed, he smiled back.

“G’morning, Jack.” Sammy rolled his shoulders in a catlike stretch. “Glad to see you actually got to bed last night. I—” He stopped suddenly, eyes wide. He stared around the room in awe. Jack watched, eyes gleaming, as Sammy stepped out of the bed, so softly his feet barely made a sound on the floor. Jack watched Sammy carefully trace his fingers along the walls, mouth moving soundlessly. When he reached the door, he turned back to Jack, who had sat up in bed.

Jack crossed the room and saw that his boyfriend’s eyes were brimming with tears. He placed his hands on either side of Sammy’s face and watched a single tear roll down his cheek.

“I love you,” Jack whispered. He pressed his smile against Sammy’s. 

Sammy kissed him back like nobody was watching.

 

I.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and neither of them had anything to do. Jack was lying on the couch, book held high in the air above him. Sammy was sitting on the end, Jack’s feet on his lap. He wasn’t reading, or texting, or watching TV, Jack noticed. He was just looking wistfully into the distance.

“What’s up?” Jack finally asked, unable to take any more of Sammy’s blank look.

Sammy seemed to jerk back into reality. “Huh? Oh, nothing. Just a lot on my mind.”

“Talk to me.” Jack pulled his legs off of his boyfriend’s lap and scooched closer to him on the couch. “I’m here to listen.”

“It’s just, this is the point of no return, isn’t it?” Sammy asked, meeting Jack’s eyes. Jack shook his head, laughing.

“What are you talking about, Stevens?”

“It’s just that you’ve stood by me, through all of my bullshit. And don’t say it’s just what boyfriends do, I’ve heard you say that a million times, and that’s not it. You’re not just my boyfriend, Jack, you’re my closest friend, and you mean the world to me.” Sammy bit his lip nervously and adjusted his position on the couch, so he was squared off with Jack. He gathered Jack’s hands up in his and squeezed them tightly. He took a deep breath. “I love you. I’ve been scared to say it, because I thought that the second I said it, there would be no going back. But if I think about it, there’s really been no going back since the moment I met you. You mean everything to me, no, you  _ are _ everything to me, and I want the world to know it. I want you to know it more than anyone else, though. Jack Wright, love of my life, will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man on this godforsaken rock we call home?” Jack’s eyes stung as tears seemed to fill his head, clogging his mouth and brain. He could do nothing but gape at the man before him. 

Sammy gripped his hands more firmly and then let them go. He stood from the couch, and then sunk to his knees. From a pocket in his sweatshirt, he pulled a small, wooden box. He looked up at Jack, who was shaking with the effort of keeping the tears at bay. Sammy smiled and said, “Will you marry me?”

And there were the waterworks. Pouring out of Jack’s eyes were every single word that had ever passed between them, every touch, every gesture, every glance, every midnight whisper. He reached forward and touched Sammy’s shoulder tentatively, as if to make sure he were real. 

“Do you love me?” he asked. He needed to hear it. He needed to hear it again.

“More than anything else in the world, Jack, I love you.” 

“God dammit. I love you too,” he sobbed, choking on his own words. He couldn’t stop crying, no matter how many times he shoved the tears away, or how long he wept. They kept coming, on and on. At some point, he had joined Sammy on the floor, and they were in each other’s arms. Sammy’s sweatshirt had a huge wet patch on the shoulder, and from the shaking of his shoulders, Jack thought Sammy might be crying too. When he finally caught his breath, he disentangled himself and sat back on his knees. Sammy wiped his eyes underneath his glasses. 

Jack held out his left hand. “Of course I’ll marry you, dumbass.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Okay!! It's done!! It's just quick, nothing too special, but I really appreciate all your kudos and comments! Even just a word means the world to me!! 
> 
> Side note, I was considering doing a drabble series called "Excerpts From the Sammy Notebook" or something like that, that'd just be like, the contents of the Sammy notebook I mentioned! It'd be like poems, journal entries, little sketches of Sammy, stuff like that. Nothing too special, I was just writing this and I thought it'd be a fun companion piece! 
> 
> Anyway, I think that's it! Come yell at me on tumblr: https://eggiish.tumblr.com/


End file.
